


nevada

by icup



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dad Spy, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Slow Burn, cant believe i almost forgot that one, i use their actual names throughout the whole thing ie. jeremy & mick, like really slow i cannot emphasize this enough, same thing goes for any other characters that show up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23391496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icup/pseuds/icup
Summary: when one australian teen boy moves to boston, ma, he makes a lifelong best friend
Relationships: Scout/Sniper (Team Fortress 2)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 34





	nevada

**Author's Note:**

> tags, warnings, etc. will be added as the fic continues to avoid spoiling anything because i love to be evil (not true, im not evil). also yes they are the same age, canonically sniper is 31 at most by the time the comics roll around also i do what i want

It was the first day of Jeremy’s sophomore year in high school. Well, technically everyone in his grade’s first day, but that doesn’t matter because this isn’t about them. It’s about him.

Nothing particularly exciting was going on, he was simply waiting at the back of the class for the bell to ring. He always liked to start the year off at the back of the class where he could doodle and scribble without any distraction, not that it ever lasted very long. He would usually get moved to the front of the class in almost no time at all, not that he had any idea why. Maybe it was because of his mild tendency to be a general menace to the people around him. Or maybe it was his inability to keep his mouth shut once he had it opened. But this year that wasn’t going to happen. He was going to be well behaved, a sweet, wonderful boy. He’d be a ‘pleasure to have in class’. Make his ma prouder of him than she ever had been (not that he’d ever done anything to disappoint her, and if he did, he avoided doing it again at all costs).

Finally, after a century of waiting, the late bell rang, signifying the start of class. The last of the students came filing in, hurrying to find a seat before the teacher would notice they weren’t already sitting. The teacher stood from his desk in the corner and walked to the front and center point of the classroom. He cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak.

“Welcome, class. I am Mr. Dubois, as you can see I have spelled it out on the whiteboard behind me.” Man, this dude had one hell of an accent. Jeremy was pretty sure it was french? Yeah, that sounded right. Not that it mattered because once he was finished introducing himself, Jeremy had already tuned out.

He instead took to just looking at the teacher, so he wouldn’t get in trouble for not paying attention, since that was apparently important even on the first day of school. Mr. Dubois was a pretty tall dude, about 6’1 he wanted to say? Slicked back dull, dirty blond hair, similar to Jeremy’s own, and some wrinkles forming here and there. Dude was dressed in a fancy ass suit too, nice shoes to match. Jeremy could tell he would be easy to mess with, and boy, was he excited for that.

The teacher continues speaking for a few minutes before he’s interrupted by the sound heavy, metal classroom door opening and the sight of either a very young teacher or a very tall student walking in. Said individual mumbles something to the teacher very quietly, presumably an apology, and hands him a pink late slip. In response, Mr. Dubois simply sets the pink slip down on the table at the front of the room and gestures to the rest of the class before speaking.

“Please take your seat.”

Okay, so he was a student. Maybe he got held back?

Jeremy watched as this kid walked all the way to the back of the class and sat at the desk paired with his own. He used this as an opportunity to examine just what he was dealing with. To start, he was wearing sunglasses inside, which was kinda weird but whatever. He had slightly wavy brown hair that had clearly been lightly gelled back with a pomade and very light stubble covering both his chin and his top lip. Long face, with high cheekbones and a not-quite strong jaw. Maybe he had been looking a little bit too long because he saw the guy give him a quick side-eye from behind his sunglasses.

He made the brilliant decision that maybe this would be a good opportunity to make like, an actual friend, aside from the other dudes on the track team. So, he elbowed the guy and whispered in his sort of general direction.

“Psst… hey.”

The kid looked at him with what he assumed was a shocked expression, and noticeably tensed up before giving Jeremy a weak little wave, barely even raising his fingers.

“Uh.. g’day?” His response was really quiet, even for a whisper. And British apparently? No. Not British. Austrian? Yeah that was it.

“What’s your name? I’m Jeremy.” He held his hand out underneath the table for the guy to shake, even bumping his leg with it just in case he didn’t see it.

He watched as this kid very hesitantly grabbed his hand to shake it. He had a strong grip but the actual shake itself was pretty loose, it was barely even a handshake. Though, that could probably be attributed to the fact that they didn’t want to get in trouble for talking during class.

“‘M names Mick.” Was his mumbled response. Okay. Mick. Interesting name but he could work with it. Wasn’t one of the worst names he’d ever heard, it was kinda cute honestly. Certainly didn’t suit him though, at least appearance wise. It honestly made Jeremy think of some kind of small animal, like a mouse, not a scrawny giant wearing ocean-scented hair pomade.

“Mick… okay, well, d'ya wanna hang out at lunch? Got a pretty sweet seat, sit there every day. But, uh, you’d have to wait ‘cause I gotta get school lunch but after that it should be smooth sailin’.” This was it. The make it or break it moment. If Mick didn’t say yes then Jeremy could say goodbye to getting a new friend. At least for today. Obviously he’d try again tomorrow, ma didn’t raise no quitter.

Mick perked up slightly at the question, his shoulders falling slightly. This was good!

“Uh, yeah, sure. Uhm, I could wait in the lunch line with ya… I didn’t bring lunch. ‘F that’s alright with you.” Yes. Fuck yes. He did it. He landed a friend, and on the first try! He was definitely gonna tell ma about this when he got home.

“Yeah!” He responded just a little too loud. Keep it chill, Jeremy. “I mean uh, yeah. That sounds great. See ya then?”

Mick offered him a small, faint smile and a nod.

“Sure thing.”

The rest of the class period was spent not talking to one another, instead Jeremy was doodling on the margins of the handout Mr. Dubois had given them and Mick was… probably doing filling out the sheet? Jeremy couldn’t tell, but it didn’t really matter to him either way. It’s not like he’d be one to judge if Mick wasn’t doing his work.

Every so often, of course, Mr. Dubois would take a walk around the class to make sure everyone was doing their work and doing it quietly. Once Mr. Dubois would come over to Mick and Jeremy’s desk, he’d pretend to be completely enraptured with the worksheet the teacher had given him, attempting to hide the blank spaces where all the answers should’ve been along with his margin doodles.

The hour goes by and the bell rings for class to be dismissed and Mr. Dubois waves his hand, indicating that everyone is free to pack up and head to their next class. Well, at least the guy had that going for him, he wasn’t one of the teachers that insisted ‘the bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do’. A pretty good bonus, at least from Jeremy’s perspective.

Mick starts packing up and gets up to leave before Jeremy’s even finished putting his binder away, so he just starts shoving his stuff in his bag as quickly as possible to try to catch some conversation before they both went their separate ways. Throwing his backpack over his shoulder, Jeremy speed walks to try and catch up to him.

“So uh, where’s your next class? Y’need any help gettin’ there? I could show you the way if ya need it.” He was kinda hoping he’d say yes, but it wasn’t the end of the world if he didn’t.

“‘M next class is in uh…” He looked at the schedule in his hand to check. “B15, ‘pparently. But uh, nah, I’m aces, mate. Went through that wing on my way to period 1, reckon it’ll be fine.” He gave a small shrug and folded his schedule to put it in his pocket.

“Oh, that’s totally chill, I needa stop by my locker anyways.” That was total bullshit but he had to lie to save his reputation. From what? Doesn’t matter.

It was mildly disappointing, he couldn’t lie to himself but he could live with it. He was gonna get to hang out with the guy at lunch, so what did it even matter.

They came to a split in the halls, where they both had to part ways, going in totally opposite directions.

“Seeya at lunch, mate.” With that, Mick gave Jeremy a small wave before turning away and walking down the hall to his second period class. Jeremy waved back before continuing to walk straight forward and walk up the stairs to the second floor.

~=*=~

The next two periods went by without issue, aside from the gym teacher, Mr. Doe, yelling at Jeremy for not doing push ups correctly (Jeremy thought he was doing fine, but clearly that was not the case, considering the scene that Mr. Doe made). Everything was completely uneventful, boring, etc. So Jeremy could not wait to get to know this Mick kid. Unless he ended up being a total weirdo, that would suck a lot, but that didn’t seem especially likely so he was pretty sure he was in the clear.

Jeremy packed up his shit to head to the cafeteria, making a b-line for the lunch line, where he saw Mick waiting. He tried to wave at him to get his attention and almost gave up hope before he saw Mick look in his direction and give that small, signature wave back in his direction and gave a tilt of his head, beckoning Jeremy to stand in line with him.

Obviously, Jeremy rushed over immediately to stand with him in line. Not just because he was trying to make a new friend, but also because he would take any chance he could to cut in front of people. The students at this school were absolute animals, and if you were at the end of the line you got the scrap, and Jeremy already had to deal with that enough at home. He was not about to continue doing that at school, too. And especially not if he had a friend who could get to the cafeteria early enough to be towards the front of the line. Speaking of said soon-to-be friend, he was now standing next to him, and god had he almost forgotten how much different it was to stand next to him than it was to sit next to him. Dude was huge, he was like, what? Six foot four? At least six foot four, which is already tall enough. But compared to Jeremy’s five foot six? Jeremy had to crane his neck so hard just to look at him he thought it might snap.

“So, I, uh haven’t actually seen ya ‘round the school before. You new here?” Jeremy questioned, trying his hardest to make eye contact without the height difference and the sunglasses getting in the way.

“Yeah, ’m new. Just moved here from Oz, matter o’ fact.” He was still quiet, even in a loud place like the cafeteria. Jeremy was surprised he could even hear the guy.

So, he wasn’t from Austria. But that begs the question: what is Oz. It can’t be like the movie, it wasn’t a real place. Well, it couldn’t hurt to ask.

“Oh, cool. Uh, what’s Oz?” Mick reacted with a look. What look it was, Jeremy couldn’t exactly tell. He just knew that he was feeling a little bit judged, which probably wasn’t a good thing. Regardless, Mick had the decency to continue their conversation by answering.

“‘S ‘Stralia, mate. Oz, Straya, eccetera.” He continued with the look from before, but this time he was… smirking? Probably. It was a little hard to tell. He was still feeling pretty judged though, how was he supposed to know that ‘Oz’ and ‘Australia’ were the same place? Those names are completely different, any average joe would get confused. Still, Australia was pretty cool. At least so he’d heard, not like he’d ever been there.

“Aw, man, that’s pretty sick. All the way on the other side of the world? Is it true that the toilets flush backwards down there? Y’know like, this way?” To demonstrate, Jeremy circled his fingers in a clockwise motion, just to really nail the point home.

“Don’t think so, but I can’t really say. Guess I never paid much attention to the way our toilets flush.” Mick gave a shrug after finishing the statement, and placed his hands in his pockets.

Finally, it was their turn to start grabbing food. Jeremy nabbed a triangular cardboard box with a small circle label that read ‘pepperoni’, some orange slices in a plastic container, a juice box, and a small, green milk carton. Same shit every day, nothing else appealed to him. They both paid for their food, and walked away. Now was Jeremy’s time to shine, really show off. Give this kid a reason to like him.

“Alright, now, follow my lead, and I’ll show you to the best seat in the house. You will _not_ be disappointed.” Jeremy stated with the utmost confidence, and began leading the way. He led Mick through the crowds, very intentionally shoving people out of the way. While he was doing this, it was very clear that Mick had never been in a large crowd before. He seemed incredibly nervous and uncomfortable, and he carried himself with a slouch. Though, Jeremy was pretty sure he usually did that. It’s how he walked into class earlier that day and it’s how he’d walked to second period as well.

Finally, after quite a bit of pushing and shoving and almost tripping over trash cans, they made it. Jeremy’s home away from home. The table was in the very corner of the room, next to a big window, and generally away from any outside disturbance. It gave Jeremy some space to himself and his friends, if he had actual school friends. Which, at this point, he didn’t, which is why we’re here.

“Here we are!” He presented the table with big open arms and plopped himself down on the bench, sliding as close to the wall as possible and sliding his lunch along with him. “Make yourself at home.” He threw off his backpack next to him and looked up at Mick, waiting for him to react.

Slowly, but surely, Mick set his backpack down on the bench and sat down next to it, sitting right across from Jeremy.

“This ain’t half bad. Surprised no one else is sittin’ here though.” Mick said, as he opened up his plastic wrapped sandwich, then taking a huge ass bite out of it. Damn, this dude had a mouth on him.

Jeremy followed suit, popping open his mini pizza box and taking a bite out of his slice of pepperoni.

“Yeah, it’s pretty wild but I managed to snag this seat last year every single day of the year. No one ever sat back here, ‘n no one really wanted to sit with me, so I just sat here instead! Pretty frickin’ sweet, honestly.” He finished off his sentence by taking another bite of pizza and then propping his legs up on the remainder of the bench. He wouldn’t lie, it got a little lonely sometimes, but he wasn’t about to admit that to this dude he just met.

In response to Jeremy’s exposition, Mick simply nodded his head and shrugged his shoulders, continuing to eat his lunch. It was pretty clear to Jeremy at this point that this guy wasn’t much of a talker. He responded in full sentences, he could give him that, but otherwise he was relatively quiet and never really brought up any new conversation topics. It wasn’t really a problem though, Jeremy’s always been told he could hold a conversation with a brick wall he talked so much. So he supposed he could just do the talking for him, he didn’t mind.

The rest of lunch was spent with Jeremy talking Mick’s ears off, typically getting a nod of the head or an “uh-huh” in response, only sometimes getting a full sentence. It honestly felt like they could’ve been there for hours, though that wasn’t an actual possibility since lunch only lasted for forty-five minutes. Which reminded Jeremy, he should probably check the time since he had to get something from his locker before fourth period.

He pulled out his phone to check the time, holding up his finger to Mick, indicating a pause in conversation. Okay, they had 15 minutes still. Sweet. However, while checking his phone he got a brilliant idea.

“Dude, give me your phone.” Was all he said, holding his free hand out.

“‘Scuse me?” Mick questioned, raising an eyebrow. Alright, fair response.

“Y’know, so I can give ya my number.” Jeremy shrugged and did a grabbing motion, urging Mick to give him his phone.

“A’right.” Mick said, shrugging and pulling his phone out of his pocket, handing it over to Jeremy.

Fuck yes. Jeremy looked for his contacts as fast as he could and input his number, labeling himself as “The really cool guy from french (jeremy)”. Nice. He handed Mick back his phone, sporting a huge smile on his face, really showing off his buck teeth.

“Now you can text me whenever. But I usually have track after school, just so ya know. It’s only the first day of school so track meets haven’t started yet, but they’ll start next week.” Jeremy stood to toss his lunch garbage in the trash can, throwing his backpack over his shoulder.

“I gotta go, see ya tomorrow!” He waved to Mick, who gave a slight wave back, before racing off upstairs to his locker before the next class started.

~=*=~

His last three periods were boring as all hell, he didn’t meet anybody, and nothing funny even happened. But that didn’t matter anymore because it was time for him to walk home and tell his ma that he’d already met somebody. He wasn’t even gonna stop by the gas station to get a soda, he was gonna haul his ass right home.

Now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure his mom was working late today, but he wasn’t entirely sure. Better to be safe than sorry, though.

Walking home was always a sight, soon as he got past the relatively suburban neighborhood his school was in, he was walking past tall skyscrapers, some newer than others. Some made of brick, old and crumbly. Others were clean, gray cement, only some air bubbles here and there. His favorite ones were always the older ones, the ones that had gone through their fair share of wear and tear. There were usually graffiti tags through the alleyways between those ones, sometimes there were whole murals. Same could be said for telephone poles, bridges, and fences. 

It had been pretty cloudy all day, but the darker clouds were starting to hover overhead, signalling that it would start raining pretty soon, which honestly excited Jeremy. He’d always been pretty fond of the rain. He used to try and sneak out to go on jogs in the rain, something his ma never liked much. She’d go on about how he’d get a cold or slip and fall, which were both true, but that didn’t change his fondness.

After roughly 20 minutes of walking, he arrived at his house. Technically, it was a shared duoplex, but it was still his home. He pulled his keys out of his pocket, fumbling with them for a moment before unlocking his front door and walking in.

“Ay, I’m home!” He shouted throughout the house, just to see if there was a response. Tyler and Hunter were bound to be off doing God knows what, but Kyle and Zane might be home. Plus there was still the off chance that his ma got off earlier than expected.

He dropped his backpack on the ground and kicked his shoes off before placing them next to all the others. He stretched and walked to the kitchen to get a quick snack, like chips or something. Whatever they had, really.

Lo and behold, there was his ma. Standing in the kitching, cutting vegetables, preparing for dinner which was in about two hours. She turned to look at him and gave him a big, bright smile.

“Hi, honey. How was the first day? Dinner’ll be ready in about 3 hours, little bit later than usual, I know, but I’m making something from scratch since I got off early today.” She chirped, clearly in a pretty good mood, and Jeremy was about to make it so much better.

“Ma, you won’t believe it, I made a friend already. His name’s Mick and I met him in first period. And get this? Already got his number. Well, I gave him mine, but that’s basically the same thing. He hung out with me at lunch and everything, it was great. He’s a real quiet guy though. Could hardly hear him at lunch, ‘specially since the cafeteria’s always so damn loud. It was cool though, he’s new, too. He’s from ‘tha land down undah’” He was throwing his arms around as he said all of this, practically bouncing with excitement, and doing a very poor Australian accent when he said ‘tha land down undah’. 

“Oh geez, all the way from Australia, huh? Didya ask him about the toilets?” She looked over her shoulder at him for a second before going back to cutting vegetables.

“Yeah! I did! He said he was pretty sure they didn’t, which kinda blows. Overall I’d say it was a successful day.” He finished off his statement by crossing his arms and puffing his chest out, just to really emphasize the point. “Anyways, I’m gonna head up to my room to get some good art time in before I lose all my free time to school, love ya, ma.” He kisses his mom on her head before dashing upstairs to his room and throwing himself on his bed.

He picks up his sketchbook and shuffles around for a pencil, finding a mechanical one on the floor right next to the edge of his bed. He grips it above the paper, trying to think of something to draw. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Time to look for some inspiration elsewhere.

He pulls his phone out of his pocket, ready to open up Instagram and look at whatever came up on his explore page, only to see a text from an unknown number on his lockscreen that just read:

“G’day.”

**Author's Note:**

> i dont know what boston looks like i live in california


End file.
